Portfolio rebalancing by investors trailed the equities market week ago as buying interest in Banking and Consumer Goods stocks lift the All Share Index above the 50,000 psychological mark, advancing by 0.73 % to close at 50,045.83 points from 49,682.15 per cent penultimate week.
Consequently, investors gained over N197 billion Week on Week, W-o-W, with market capitalisation closing up at N26.993 trillion from N26.796 trillion previous week.
The mixed sentiment and demand for blue chip stocks helped the benchmark index to close higher, regardless of the fact that interim dividend paying banks had informed investors of delay in the release of their half of the year earnings before the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The positive outing was underpinned by investors’ interest in Guinness Nigeria which rose by 9.9%, Stanbic IBTC 8.2%, Access Holdings 6.1% , Wapco 4.6%, BUA Foods 4.5% and BUA Cement 2.7%.
The Month-to-Date, MtD, return went up by 0.4%, while the Year by Date, YtD, return increased to 17.2%. Activity levels were mixed, as trading volume increased by 30.7% W-o-W, while trading value declined by 15.3% W-o-W. Sectoral performance was largely bullish as the Consumer Goods Index garnered 2.0% , Industrial Goods Index 1.4% , Banking Index 1.2% and Oil & Gas Index 0.6%
Analysts at Cordors Research stated: “We expect alpha-seeking investors to continue to seek trading opportunities in stocks of companies that delivered impressive earnings during the Q2-22 earnings season amid the yield uptick in the FI market. However, we think the absence of a near-term catalyst will likely skew overall market sentiments to the negative side, particularly as the political space gets heated. Notwithstanding, we reiterate the need for positioning in only fundamentally sound stocks as the unimpressive macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.
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